Have We Run Out of Space on the Internet?

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:36:58 +0000

This is a guest post written by Craighton Miller.

There is no more space on the Internet – sort of.

It is predicted that on February 2 around 4am the Internet is going to go through an Armageddon of sorts. All allocatable IPv4 address will be used, and the Internet community will be forced to adopt the IPv6 standard.

The current system of IPv4 addresses allow for only 4 billion combinations to be allocated. Every device that is connected to the Internet is given a unique code, called an IP address, which allows the device to be recognized on the Internet.

At the current rate these IPv4 addresses are being assigned, they will depleted in no time. One Internet Service Provider (ISP) calculates that one million addresses are assigned every four hours. The countdown to “IPcalypse” has begun.

As noted, most of these IP addresses are reusable. Unfortunately, many of them are being utilized as “one-time use” addresses.

The company Hurricane Electric is taking a step to encourage other ISPs to transfer to the new IPv6 system, which allows for 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 combinations. Their Twitter account is counting down the days and IP addresses left before we completely run out.

Currently, hardware and software developers have noticed that this change is needed and have built in compatibility to many devices and software applications to be ready for the change in our future.

Have We Run Out of Space on the Internet?

What is IPv6?

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:01:22 +0000

What is IPv6?

http://live.pirillo.com/ – ODid you know there's a limit to the number of devices that can be connected to the Internet at any given time? It's true – we're running out of IP addresses that can be given out. IPv4 was originally designed at a time when "the next biggest thing" was getting 1/3 of the US population a "home computer." As you can imagine, nobody could imagine the explosive growth of the Internet.

Right now we're in a transitional period: from IPv4 to IPv6. With IPv4 we only had 32 bits worth of numbers that could be used on the Internet. With IPv6 we have 128 bits worth of numbers.

What is IPv6? It's basically the same Internet Protocol, it just has a lot more numbers. It's also backwards compatible – so IPv4 addresses will actually work on IPv6. This simple means there are will be little to no impact felt by the average consumer: you'll get online in basically the same way you to today, surf the same way, and generally do the things you've always done.

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What is IPv6?

Chris Pirillo » ipv4

Have We Run Out of Space on the Internet?

What is IPv6?